Quitting can be such a drag

[caption id="attachment_135695" align="aligncenter" width="556"] There is a class of smokers - probably those less nicotine-dependent - who benefit more from abrupt quitting.[/caption]

Going cold turkey is the best way to stop smoking, a study by researchers at Oxford University has found.

The study, reported in the latest journal of Annals of Internal Medicine, used a sample of 697 smokers who wanted to quit.

The group was split into two. The "abrupt cessation group were given a date on which to stop smoking; the second group, the gradual cessation group, had to quit gradually over two weeks.

After quit day, smokers from both groups were monitored weekly for the next four weeks, and after six months.

After four weeks, 39% of the gradual cessation group were still not smoking, compared with 49% of the abrupt cessation group.

Yusuf Saloojee, executive director of the SA National Council Against Smoking, said: "Generally we tell people to decide on a date and quit, although I support the use of medical anti-smoking aids, particularly for heavy smokers."

But Saloojee and Derek Yach, a former head of the World Health Organisation's tobacco control division, conceded that quitting cigarettes is complicated.

"There is a class of smokers - probably those less nicotine-dependent - who benefit more from abrupt quitting.

"For those more nicotine-dependent, abrupt quitting has a minimal effect.

"Nicotine replacement - using reduced-risk products, including e-cigarettes - work better for them and have higher quit rates than most pharmaceutical products."